Replicating white/gold = blue/black

[Packard]

A few years back the Internet went wild over a white and gold dress that in the shade looked like blue and black.

Can I replicate that effect with wall paint on walls?
https://www.9news.com.au/world/phot...s-debate/15465485-dad8-45d2-8da0-8d20558b5013

 

[Packard]

I figured it out.

The color temperature in bright sun on a clear day is usually called out as 6000 degrees K.

The color temperature in open shade on a clear day, is usually called out as 9000 degrees K.

The 3000 degree color shift is enough to make a white dress look blue.

The problem being we (humans) have minds that make mental adjustments for changes in light sources.  So if we know that the walls in a room are actually white, we see “white” regardless of the light source.

But with the dress, outside of a known environment, will be seen as it actually is.

If any of you remember film rated for “daylight” vs “incandescent type A or Type B”, then using one of the incandescent rated films outdoors would render white items to be seen as blue.

The incandescent file was rated about 2700K and the daylight film was about 5600K, that same 3000 degree spread—enough for the dress in the shade to look blue and the same dress in the sun to look white.

I real life the dress would look all white, our minds making that color shift adjustment.  Photos render as white vs blue because cameras live in a world where brains don’t make color adjustments.

So, I figured it out.  Drove me nuts for most of the day. Sorry to have burdened you guys.

Packard

 

[squall_line]

You can't necessarily directly replicate it with wall paint, but the effect is a real reason to sample paint colors in the room where they're going to end up, and at different times of day.

The greige that I picked for my old house before I sold it was chosen because it looked best in the house under the most light conditions.  Some of the grey shades looked more green, some looked more blue, depending on the time of day.

 

[luvmytoolz]

This may be something you could recreate using chameleon pigments or interference pigments in paint?

I use these a lot in resin work and the results are pretty spectacular, although the interference pigments do work better on a dark base. But there must be equivalent products designed especially for paints?

 

[Packard]

A color morphing wall would be interesting.

A friend of mine had his classic Porsche repainted a very dark metallic green. The color suited the car.

If he parked his car in the shade on a bright sunny day, you would swear that the car was painted black.  Even on overcast days, it looked more black than green.

But in direct sun, definitely green, most notably in the highlights.

You can see a similar effect below.